Unreal Engine 4 Demo: PlayStation 4 vs. PC

Last week's GDC reveal of Unreal Engine 4 running on PlayStation 4 hardware gave us a revised look at 2012's Elemental PC demo - at the time operating on Core i7 in combination with Nvidia's powerful GTX 680 - and after the dust settled we were curious to see how the two renditions compared directly. This should give us some idea of the ways in which Epic has reshaped its code to better suit the new console platform. Of course, it's early days and UE4 in itself is still in development, but the question remains - to what extent can PS4 match up to a top-end PC?

Good read... It doesn't quite match the demo that the 680 put out last year but it's still impressive. Especially when you consider that the PS4 will probably cost less than a 680 alone. Assuming it is less than £350

Why in the hell did they remove the GI from the pc version of the engine?

They haven't removed anything from the PC version. It's almost a year old trailer. Anything on the PS4 trailer is new and has been added in.

Originally Posted by Fijiandoce

lacking out and out particle effects. but still commendable.

was kinda hoping the Dynamic GI would become the norm though. Subsurface scattering seems to have remained intact for the consoles though so that'll be good for human characters

Yeah it is lacking a few things but that doesn't mean it doesn't look good. The PS4 was never really going to compete with a high end PC. Anyone even thinking that is only kidding themselves. What the PS4 does offer at the price point though - It's damn, damn good.

They haven't removed anything from the PC version. It's almost a year old trailer. Anything on the PS4 trailer is new and has been added in.

I'm talking about this part of their article. I know it's there in the pc version of the trailer but the engine seems to have been downgraded in this area.

Update: To clarify, it's our understanding that there won't be a real-time GI/Lightmass divide between PC and console in final UE4 games - we're looking at the pre-computed solution across all platforms.

I must have skipped over that. I wonder what made them take it out if it was there in the first place? Epic got some explaining to do. Why can't we have real time lighting by now?

I can't stress this enough: This demo is a DIRECT port on estimated hardware. Final kits are being sent this summer so the demo is basically all pc code running unoptimzed on alpha kits most probably.

Second of all UE4 is already lagging behind other engines. Other devs are making much larger strides in graphic and cryengine 3 has had realtime GI for 2 years now. Hell The Last of Us anf farcry 3 on ps3 has some extent of GI going on. Lets not even mention capcom's new Panta Rhei engine

I will wait till E3 for EPIC to step their game up

I wonder when a nuclear warhead goes off, does the frame rate of real life drop?

I can't stress this enough: This demo is a DIRECT port on estimated hardware. Final kits are being sent this summer so the demo is basically all pc code running unoptimzed on alpha kits most probably.

Second of all UE4 is already lagging behind other engines. Other devs are making much larger strides in graphic and cryengine 3 has had realtime GI for 2 years now. Hell The Last of Us anf farcry 3 on ps3 has some extent of GI going on. Lets not even mention capcom's new Panta Rhei engine

I will wait till E3 for EPIC to step their game up

"This should give us some idea of the ways in which Epic has reshaped its code to better suit the new console platform. Of course, it's early days and UE4 in itself is still in development,"

So it was still on some code, how optimized, who knows. Though optimization can only take you so far. It just seems a bit $#@!ty that one of the most used engines currently doesn't offer something next gen engines do already.

Originally Posted by Fijiandoce

Crysis ran on the Cryengine 1 if im not mistaken, and that had real-time GI.

UE3 was baseline of what to expect from this generation. maybe this is baseline for next
still a pretty good baseline though

It did indeed. There was a reason Crysis has been used as a Benchmark game for many years

Still loving how certain PC extremists are blaming consoles...someone mentioned SOVGI was taking more than half the resources of GTX 680, it isn't practical for the market this year. Medium and lower end cards can't run it...why continue to blame PS4? I mean it isn't realistic for everyone to have a GTX 680 card in their PC today...I am sure 2 years down the line Epic will enable the feature for PC gamerz

They HAVE to keep the minimum required specs in mind for PC games.

edit: look at how UE3 was upgraded over the years. Especially in the lighting department

If true, really shows how expensive realtime lighting can be. And quite frankly it you aren't able to interact with environment objects, what is the point of GI? I mean if all objects in the environment are static that you can't tell much between GI and porebaked

I wonder when a nuclear warhead goes off, does the frame rate of real life drop?

Crysis ran on the Cryengine 1 if im not mistaken, and that had real-time GI.

No it didn't.
Simple ambient lighting + SSAO is far from GI solution.

In actual topic.
The Elemental demo isn't really a good indication on how the engine works on ps4, the demo had build around their GI implementation which was removed and demo wasn't really properly adjusted. (metallic objects had just been changed to basic material.. etc.)

The PS4 demo is very lacking. Missing textures everywhere, poor shading, missing cinematic motion blur, missing cinematic field of depth, particle effects, etcetera etcetera. I hate Epic now for ever designing a demo for the 680GTX in the first place.

In actual topic.
The Elemental demo isn't really a good indication on how the engine works on ps4, the demo had build around their GI implementation which was removed and demo wasn't really properly adjusted. (metallic objects had just been changed to basic material.. etc.)

Looks good, but it not quite on par with an Intel + Nvidia combination as expected from a weak 8 core processor + 7850 combo. PC gamer pay extra for that extraness in their game, they are not just over paying for nothing.

But those graphic are still better than last gen so can't wait for the PS4 exclusive.

"This should give us some idea of the ways in which Epic has reshaped its code to better suit the new console platform. Of course, it's early days and UE4 in itself is still in development,"

So it was still on some code, how optimized, who knows. Though optimization can only take you so far. It just seems a bit $#@!ty that one of the most used engines currently doesn't offer something next gen engines do already.

It did indeed. There was a reason Crysis has been used as a Benchmark game for many years

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